Summer Picnic

Each year the ranch has two social events for the employees and their families: a summer picnic in July and a Christmas party in early December. The summer picnic was held on Saturday, July 2nd at the Rodeo Grounds. The elders spent Friday and Sat. A.M. cleaning up the rodeo grounds and helping the sisters "decorate". The missionary couples were also enlisted to man the snow cone concession. After a dinner of hamburgers ("BEEF - It's what's for dinner!"), hot dogs, baked beans, coleslaw, chips, and a variety of desserts, there were arena games (some on horseback!) with fireworks as the finale of a wonderful evening.

 Although, we worried about rain because of the late P.M. storms we have been having, a short rain came in the middle of the day resulting in perfect temperatures for the picnic.



Entrance to Rodeo Grounds





Elders Appel, Manning, and Yates clean up the place.
(Elder Kennedy is busy off camera!)




Sister Yates sweeping the deck around the tree.




Sister Manning putting on tablecloths.
(We won't do that next year!)




Red, White, & Blue decorations!




Water Slides for the kids




Ellie Anderson (ward organist) & son Ian




Bishop Jim Campbell & wife Terri




Chad Smith & daughter Maya (9) head for horse race starting line.




Winner of Horse Race: Bishop Campbell by a nose!




Pie Eating Contest




Snow Cones!!

 




Arena Games (Egg Toss maybe?)



Sparklers

Watching fireworks from the back of a pick-up truck!

New Calling

When SK joined the church 40 years ago, her first calling was in Primary teaching a CTR class of 7 year olds. Now after various callings in Primary, Young Women, Sunday School, Scouts, Seminary, and Relief Society, she's come full circle and has been called to teach the same class! What a nice change! No presidency meetings, no PPIs with Bishops or *Stake Presidents, no ward or stake council meetings, etc, etc!! She suspects they'll teach her more than she will teach them and she will welcome that.   Primary

(*Pres. Emery, if you are reading this, meeting with you was pure joy!)

"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children." Isa. 54:13



L-R Adam(visitor), Melanie,Kaylee, Mary, Tia, Charly, Rawdon
Not Shown: Holly




Ellsworth Ward



*Ellsworth Ward is located on the ranch about 6-7 miles from the visitors center where we live. It's a great ward and we are enjoying getting to know all the members. The Mannings have been called as advisers to the Young Single Adults; the Yates' are serving as ward music chairman (her) and asst. 11 year old scout leader (him); and the Penningtons will be teaching the temple preparation course. Sis. Manning is also the sacrament meeting chorister. She plays the piano and organ and has already played a wonderful piano duet with the organist in sacrament meeting. Hopefully more are planned!

* The ward was named after Leo Ellsworth, a developer of agricultural and livestock operations in central Arizona, who managed the ranch from 1954 - 1968. He had the vision and experience to develop and manage a large tract of wasteland and make it productive.

Busy June

Our first Zone Conference was June 7-8. Elder and Sister Estes came from SLC. Elder Estes interviewed each couple, offering counsel as necessary. We had lunch on the porch of the Carroll House and then moved to the Ellsworth Ward building for our formal meeting. The theme for the conference came from Proclaim My Gospel, chapter 6, "Christlike Attributes" and was presented by Sister Estes. Joe Snider, the Housing Foreman, acknowledged the contributions of the elders to the ranch, each missionary couple bore their testimony, and Elder Estes was an inspirational concluding speaker. The day ended with dinner at Carraba's Italian Grill in Palm Bay.   Preach My Gospel

The next morning we piled into the tour bus for a tour of the ranch which included all of the elders' work projects completed or in progress, the missionary apartments in the 4-plex, and the Sungrove area where the handcart treks take place. The Estes brought their 11 year old grandson, "Luke". After lunch on the porch again, Elder Estes and Luke went on an airboat ride while the sister missionaries showed Sister Estes everything we had made to donate to the Osceola Council on Aging for distribution to various agencies in Osceola County. (Quilts, childrens clothes & toys, baby items, etc.)



Elder Yates explains new electric panel installed at water pumping station.
(Elder Kennedy with suspenders)

   


Elder and Sister Yates' apartment living room.

 




Elder Kennedy and Elder Manning (right) explain 
remodeling being done to a cowboy house that houses interns.





Elder & Sister Kennedy "help" Luke pull a handcart!



The day after Zone Conference ended, we flew to Ohio for Frank's graduation from the University of Cincinnati on June 10th. He now has an MBA in accounting and is doing an internship for ATSG,Inc., the parent company for ABX, wife Dawna's company. Now they actually ride to work together! Sue's brother Bill and his wife Ann also joined us for the ceremony. We were so grateful we could leave the ranch for this important occasion.

Also, on Sunday June 12th, Frank was ordained a High Priest by his Father. Another not-to-be-missed family occasion. Priesthood



We've Moved!!

The Penningtons from NC arrived on 5/16, all of the missionary couples were interviewed by Erik Jacobsen (ranch general manager), and on 5/18 he asked us to be the "lead" couple. This doesn't mean much change for Elder Kennedy, but does give Sis. K some additional responsibilities. AND it meant moving out of the 4-plex and into the Carroll House Visitors Center!! On Memorial Day weekend, we traded a comfy apt for private quarters within the Carroll House, i.e. a large bedroom/living room, small bath, and small laundry room. The good news is we can use the full size kitchen in the Carroll House AND CK finally has a Florida "cracker" house with a beautiful screened-in porch on all four sides of the house. We really enjoy sitting on the porch watching our new "neighbors". Also, how many people do you know that have a 12 foot alligator named Gus in their living room?(See below) Our new address: 3584 Orchid Circle, St. Cloud, FL, 34773.



Our new home. Pat's family visited in May.



 The Carroll House was on 43,000 acres purchased from a Senator Carroll in 1950. I believe the original house was built about 1929 and then restored in 2000. I'm trying to get more information on Senator Carroll, who may have been a banker in Kissimmee.



One of our new neighbors. The herd is growing since CK started feeding them!

  


Elle checking out Gus. Grayson wouldn't go near him!!

 

May Update

SHHHHHH! Don't tell anyone, but we returned to St Pete on 4/22 to see our grandchildren and pick up some things we forgot or discovered we needed from home. Heather has made some (good) changes to the living room. She definitely has her mother's gift for decorating and I love everything she's done. It was fun to  dye Easter eggs with Elle and watch her hunt for them in our back yard. (while Grayson was napping!)



Grandma hid the eggs and she found them all!



The Mannings and the Yates arrived on April 29th and 30th. It was a busy weekend for SK because the Zollingers were in AZ for the birthday and baptism of a grandchild. The Welch's didn't leave until 5/3 so that helped. Also, there were no tours on Saturday (30th) or Monday (2nd) when SK was assigned to that.

We were in charge of FHE on the 2nd, so we piled into the tour bus (holds 17 people) and took the Mannings and the Yates on the visitors tour. We have invited various people working on the ranch to speak to us on FHE: Jacob Birch, a cowboy training to be foreman; James Payne, an attorney for the ranch; and Jeff Walker, comptroller for the ranch. The information they share and the knowledge they have about the workings of the ranch is always very interesting.

We've had some important visitors at the ranch since we arrived. Presiding Bishop H. David Burton (Biography)and his wife came in April, but we didn't get to meet them. CK was busy working and SK wasn't at the Visitors Center when they stopped by there. Then a little over a week ago, people from KSL-TV in Salt Lake City visited the ranch. Article and video of ranch

The Ranch

We have now been at the ranch for three weeks. It is an amazing place! Beautiful. Peaceful. A world away from the glitz of Orlando. We've been having fun exploring the ranch, taking pictures, getting to know the people here, and generally "settling in". We live in a 4-plex of 1 bedroom 1 bath apartments, comfortable with more storage space than we expected. Reminds us that we can do with a lot less than we are used to and be happy and comfortable! When we arrived, there were 5 missionary couples here: 4 couples from Utah and 1 couple from Bartow, FL, a couple of hours away. Three of the UT couples have left for home and the FL couple will leave next week. We are expecting a couple from Idaho and a couple from UT next weekend with the remaining couple of our new group arriving from NC in mid May.

We can now answer the question "What will you be doing?". "Missionaries for Farmland Reserve Inc

primarily focus on preserving and enhancing farm properties." There are 70-80 buildings on the ranch and many (most) of the 90 employees and their families live on the ranch. As you can imagine, it's a wonderful place to raise children. CK has been helping get a house ready for new occupants, i.e. replacing flooring in the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. He was working with Elder Law, a stonemason from UT, until Elder Law left for home a couple of days ago. He's also working on a small house used for interns who come to the ranch from various universities.

SK has been busy learning about the ranch because the sister missionaries conduct tours of the ranch. Also, they work on humanitarian projects for local charities. Both of us will soon have callings in our new ward, the Ellsworth Ward, which is on the ranch, about 6 miles away. We meet with the other missionary couples at 6:45 AM on weekdays for a devotional, on Monday nights for FHE, and twice a month for Sunday dinner. We have a day during the week when we can attend the Orlando temple. Temples

Family Home Evening

Check out the ranch website: http://www.deseretranchflorida.com/

   



Welcoming Committee! Zollingers and Millers

 Our Apartment

View from our front door

Elder Kennedy and Elder Law at work

The Carroll House Visitors Center

Some of the "locals"





Setting Apart

On Thursday, March 31st, we went to the St. Petersburg Stake Center to be set apart as Agricultural Church Service Missionaries by our Stake President, Nathan Emery. Our youngest son, Patrick, and our Bishop, Dan Russell were also in attendance. Afterwards, we went to dinner with Pat and Bishop Russell. Setting Apart



L to R Elder Kennedy, Pres. Emery, Sister Kennedy,
Patrick, Bishop Russell